My cue.....for now

Q

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
Again with the new camera, i'm trying to learn how to use it. This is the cue I have been playing with for a year or so. Not for sale. The birdseye is actually this color, which is cool that the camera caught it right. Any feedback on picture taking would be appreciated. I'm trying to learn this stuff. Thanks

wdprn005.jpg

wdprn006.jpg

wdprn007.jpg
 
Cue looks great my kinda of cue too, but you need more lighting in the pic.
 
bnall said:
Cue looks great my kinda of cue too, but you need more lighting in the pic.
Click to expand...

Elevate the cue, it loses the shadows you get from the cue resting on the table. You can move around to eliminate the shadows under the cue when you do elevate. This works great for photos of the cue in sections, but is quite difficult when photographing the whole cue.

You can tilt the camera so as to work from corner to corner, instead of side to side, to get closer to the cue.

Natural sunlight is the best source for lighting.

A Tripod gives you sharper photos.
 
Very nice. Me likey. It almost looks like metal in the rings. Must be a reflection.

Glen
 
qbilder said:
Yeah, gonna try a stronger flash & a filter to kill the glare, and likely need to take outside pics on a sunny day.
Click to expand...

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, AND DON'T USE THE FLASH.

INDIRECT FLOURESCENT LIGHT WORKS AWESOME. YOU DON'T NEED A "PICTURE BOX" BUT INDIRECT LIGHTING IS THE WAY TO GO. EVEN IF IT'S BRIGHT LIGHTS AIMED AT THE CEILING, IT'LL DO THE JOB.

I'VE SCREWED AROUND WITH ALL KINDS OF OPTIONS, AND THAT'S ALWAYS WORKED WELL FOR ME.

Marcus
 
That's a hot cue... I've always insisted on buttsleeve wood matching the point wood, but you've proven it works great otherwise in several cues....

I still suck at taking pics, but use the "macro" feature, and shoot pics outside on a sunny day - that'll give you the best pics IMO.
 
qbilder said:
Again with the new camera, i'm trying to learn how to use it. This is the cue I have been playing with for a year or so. Not for sale. The birdseye is actually this color, which is cool that the camera caught it right. Any feedback on picture taking would be appreciated. I'm trying to learn this stuff. Thanks

wdprn005.jpg

wdprn006.jpg

wdprn007.jpg
Click to expand...


Hey Eric,
Wicked cue. I love it! What weight do you have on that cue?
 
Glen, those are metal rings :) I normally don't do metal rings because of finish related issues, but on my own cue I can experiment with different designs & techniques before ever putting them out.

Tony, the weight is 19oz on the money with 13mm 4.0oz shafts. 19.5" balance.

Thanks everybody for the advice. I truly do appreciate it & will consider/try every bit of it.
 
pictures

great looking bird's eye :)

there are several additional things you can try:

1 extend part of the cue out into space ( like off a bar table ) - that will give you great depth of field in your shot

2 if you have to use a flash, place the cue at the bottom most section of the frame - the flash will normally be aligned to the middle of the frame so it misses the bounce off the wood

3 you can use tissue to cover your flash

4 take the shot from different angles as light tends to bounce very differently at each perspective

5 if you wanna really get into the grain of the wood, increase the flash output, add about +1 to the +/- EV bracketing, get real close with macro and crop off either end of the shot. the wood will just pop ! then you can use the exposure control in your software to get the wood color back to it's actual appearance.
 
qbilder said:
Yeah, gonna try a stronger flash & a filter to kill the glare, and likely need to take outside pics on a sunny day.
Click to expand...

Eric, forget the flash, Shoot your cues in natural sunlight and turn the cues into the sun to reduce shadow images. The photos of your cues below were shot in this manner. The brazilian Rosewood forearm cue is my new player, and I'm playing great with it. I love your playing cue. If you ever want to sell, please call me. Best regards.

ST2buttsleeves.jpg

buttsleevewithshaftrings.jpg

3entirepoints.jpg

buttsleevealonewithsignatureandd-1.jpg
 
Kam pinpointed something very important and interesting - after you take consistently good pictures you may want to try and experience with brightness / darkness.

You may change that by either changing the +/- EV bracketing or in S (Shutter speed) mode by changing the shutter time.

A good example for the brightness is what Kam mentioned and for the darkness: if you take darker pictures the grain in ivory (or other whiter bones) will show a lot better as the glare you get from the white material won't "burn" into the picture in the form of a white area but, instead, you'll get to see the grains.

From the pictures I think you got yourself a rather good camera as before the flash went on it must have been really dark and yet, it could find the perfect focus on the butt sleeve which is difficult.

The golden rules are (in my opinion): natural lighting and macro mode. You may want to use the flash in very strong sunlight, it may sound strange but you'll get a lot different result.

It would be very nice to see your cues in more detail, your work is amazing.
 
Modeling flash

this is another feature some cameras have ( like my NIKON D300 ) ...it fires a series of quick bursts which is pretty handy so see exactly what sort of reflection ( if any ) you are going to be dealing with ...

try it out :)
 
Hey, I thought you couldn't afford a cue.... :confused:

Or, did you pay yourself in beer??? :grin:

Scott
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top